


The Labyrinth

by Skullszeyes



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: Alice in Wonderland References, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Hackers, Assassins & Hitmen, Betrayal, Blackmail, Blood, Blood and Violence, Claustrophobia, Crimes & Criminals, Cybernetics, Cyberpunk, Dark, Drug Addiction, Drug Withdrawal, Drugs, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Forbidden Love, Friendship, Gangs, Insecurity, Insomnia, Lies, Loneliness, Loyalty, M/M, Memory Alteration, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Original Character(s), Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Torture, Psychological Trauma, Romance, Secrets, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Swearing, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2019-08-23 12:17:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16618817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes
Summary: Evan is blackmailed and given a bodyguard to watch him. He's forced to locate his friends he abandoned a year ago. But what they don't know, is that the secrets he's determined to keep, are coming to the surface. While SMii7y is dealing with his own problems that are mixed in with Evan's. Memories lapses and changes in behavior is destroying their minds.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Yo. This is the Cyberpunk story I promised back in Aug/Sept. :) I wanted to write this because Cyberpunk is one of my favorite genre's of writing. I get a lot of inspiration from the Cyberpunk genre that I add into my other stories. :)
> 
> It's my birthday today (11.14.18). xD I'm 24 yrs old. Yay, I think. Actually, when it hit 12, I felt like throwing up. lmfao. That's probably because I've been writing since 5pm. lmfao. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy. 
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are really appreciated. :D

One moment everything was going according to plan, the next, a loud screech almost knocked Evan off his seat. He squeezed his eyes closed and his hands came to his ears. Cupping them, and clenching his teeth from screaming like the rest of his friends were currently doing. 

The sound, a banshee call, burning his eardrums as he pressed a button on his laptop sitting hinged upon his leg, threatening to fall to the hard cement floor. The sound came to a riveting stop, and his entire body jolted, gasping for air before his brows creased as he peered at the screen.

“One more fucking time,” he said under his breath.

“I know,” SMii7y said on the other line. “I’m sorry. That was an accident.”

“How about you stop making it into a fucking accident,” Travis said, his tone harsh as something clattered on his end. “Again with the fucking siren.”

“Wasn’t a siren,” Jett spoke, her tone clipped as Travis’s was, “the signal is out. Now what?”

“I say we continue burrowing our way into the system,” Fourzer0seven said. Soft clicking indicated he was still typing after the assault to their ears.

It was one of those decisions that made Evan regret ever syncing them to each other. Their noises were loud, so were their knock off of an implants sitting inside their skulls. SMii7y with his unsurprising rip off burned them whenever it wasn’t reset upon the side of his face. They could barely afford the ripper docs sitting in alley ways, connected to the gangs in their areas. They were barely generous to Anomalies anyway. 

“One job, one job, one job,” Evan told himself as he went back to hacking into the FreeState system that sat above them. He wanted to go into the building, but Jett found an easier way that they didn’t have to sneak inside. She managed to hack into the system that connected to the module which wasn’t as hard as most would think and extended it. Still, he hated sitting in some foul sewer with a chair kicked up, and his equipment sitting around him for the taking. 

FreeState was a pharmaceutical facility that was occupied by several subsidiary offices that connected them to the main branch—Heaven Corp. At some point in life, evil people with evil intentions had to stop naming themselves the metaphorical plane of the afterlife, or the home of God. It was getting ridiculous. 

They spent about two hours trying to tap into the system, but Evan wouldn’t tell them he was already in. Mostly looking for what he wanted. Information he could steal and and setting it into a blog of an anonymous person with no address sequence. Either way, the job was going to go off with a hitch, and the information he stole will have the effect he wants. 

He came upon a list of FreeState’s objectives that had to do with their Euphoric Medication which was not the street drug. But something they created in small bottles with numerous of bright metallic colors in liquid form and a brainwashing logo on the sides. Sometimes they came in pills and capsules. Take a few, feel better, usually the average person with emotional issues were prescribed a bottle for a month or eight pills. One drop into a drink and they’ll feel what they always wanted to feel.

Some call it the  _ Alice in Wonderland  _ effect and he wasn’t talking about the disorder. The high, or whatever abuse they were doing with the pills, done something to them, and FreeState has been trying to keep it contained. Which wasn’t working when a group of people who were obsessed with a new feeling were a lot more stubborn about keeping their ideal peace from slipping from their grasp.

Maybe that’s why the yellow bottle and capsules were usually spent up and ordered more often than the others. 

Everyone usually wants to feel happiness. 

The most stolen were the Joy and Pleasure capsules. Equally effective to those who didn’t feel anything at all, and worse to the ones who abused its purpose. 

He looked over the orders, and most of them were taken from the factories themselves. Industrial buildings that were shipped from different countries and spread out throughout the cities. Some were recorded, some weren’t, it was all an endless maze and most ended up with loose ends. 

He found reports, but nothing more than a few doctors and scientists complaints that were left ignored by their higher ups. Another indication that these people who worked for Heaven Corp knew what they were doing. The true cause of the addiction was to promise absolute control. This repetition has been happening for hundreds of years, and not one person has cracked it, broken it open, and exposed it. Not one, even how much they like to tell themselves they have. Usually reality is an illusion, and most begin to wade within it once they come to the realization that there’s no way out of its labyrinth.

It gave Evan enough incentive to hack into their network and steal their information. He can gather up enough and send it to people who truly wanted to make a difference. A bit of evidence here and there can fall through fingers, but usually the exposure helped orient the companies in charge. 

At least he hoped it would.

Something popped up onto his laptop. A note of some kind in text that wasn’t surrounded by a box. 

_ Ragdoll is interfering — Red is on route, so is Jack. Pick your cards right, Alice. _

He stared, unsure of what he was looking at until another ear splitting sound jolted Evan out of his thoughts, his teeth gritting hard that he was afraid one day they would chip. The note was gone, but not the pain cracking the implants under his skin.

“SMii7y,” Fourzer0seven growled into the comm. 

“I’m going to deactivate the link,” Evan said, a hand pressed to the side of his head to stop the pounding from breaking his skull.

“I’m sorry, but we have a problem.” 

Evan looked at the sudden cam that appeared on his screen, and his eyes widened. A red alert was going off seconds ago, and from the various cam’s appearing of the halls and staircases they had run down earlier were now filled with a few soldiers in black tactical armour, including their heavy weapons.

“They have Mercy Rifles,” Jett said, fumbling with something on her end, and they all heard something being ripped from her connection. A sort of phantom knot appeared at the back of Evan’s head.

“Give us a fucking warning when you’re going to rip the cord out,” he said.

“My fucking bad,” Jett said, voice tense, “but we’re compromised. Head for the rendez-vous point. If you’re caught, you know what to do.” Her line went out, including the others, and by five seconds, Evan realized he was alone with a closed link between his friends. He scrambled from his seat and closed his laptop, tucked it inside the case, and gathered the rest of his equipment. Once it was clasped, Evan hauled it down the narrow stone hallway, past a stream, and into another circular tunnel that was pitch black. 

He touched the side of his eye and blinked a few times. The darkness lit up with a light tone green, it touched the edges of his vision, and revealed the tunnel he was strolling through. 

He clutched the gun sitting in his holster at his side. Gripping the handle, he switched off the safety and navigated his way through the tunnel. He needed to find the stairs that led to the second floor where he made sure a metal door was properly sealed without suspicion that he broken through it when he first scouted the tunnels. 

What would’ve been worse than where they were hold up was the basement of Heaven Corp, which was several feet away from where he was previously sitting. The walls itself was heavy steel, wires, and other algorithms that would have alerted their AI, and he didn’t want that happening. Getting stuck in Heaven wasn’t ideal, and he’d rather be sitting beside it with an exit strategy. 

The link returned with heavy breathing coming from SMii7y. 

“I think I’m caught.”

“You have a gun,” Travis reminded him.

SMii7y sighed. “No offence, but this isn't the way I wanted to die.”

“For a cause, fucking coward,” Jett said.

“I’m close to you,” Evan said, making a right down a long tunnel where he spotted a faint light coming from his left. “Where are you?”

“Adjacent to tunnel B4.”

“Where are they?”

“Staircase 2 on the left side.”

_ Left. Left. Left.  _ Evan slowed his pace and kept close to the wall until he stopped by the corner. He set his equipment down and gripped the gun. 

Smii7y clicked his tongue. “One...two...three.”

Evan turned and shot the first soldier twice in the face. The first bullet had broken the glass, but not by much, the second killed him. He turned his attention to the next, but SMii7y managed that himself as he appeared from the corridor to the far right.

“Two?” he asked, glancing at SMii7y who gave him a shrug. Evan went back for the equipment and met with SMii7y at the rusted steel steps where they ascended to the top and watched the corridors for anymore security.

“I hate doing this, seriously, confrontation is not my skill set in the least.”

“Quit complaining, one day it’ll save your life.” He pressed against the closed metal door and wrenched it open. 

SMii7y grinned, “Like it just did.”

Evan narrowed his eyes at him as they walked through the door. “One day I won’t be around to save your ass.”

“Funny. Like I really need you saving my life all the time.”

Evan made sure the door was shut before proceeding down the hall. “Not me, then Jett, Travis, or even Scotty.”

“No name drops, fuckers,” Fourzer0seven said in the comm.

They heard more shooting on the other lines as they watched their step through the dark corridor. They made it to the staircase on A1, but found it was guarded by two security guards. 

“I mean, it does help at times,” SMii7y said, raising his Fusion Pistol. 

Before they could kill the soldiers, Jett appeared from the stairwell above them, and shot them down before her feet met the ground. She turned, her eyes a bright blue from the retina’s allowing them to see in the dark. She had long black hair and wore a black leather jacket, a tank-top, and jeans with sneakers. 

She pointed the gun at them, a sneer making its way onto her face. “Hurry the fuck up. I want to leave.”

“The sewer was the greatest fucking place,” Evan commented, stepping from the dark with SMii7y.

“I didn’t know.” She tucked her gun back into her holster. “I thought it was secured. Someone fucked us over.”

“Someone from the outside,” Travis said into their ears. “I have a signal from several blocks, a lingering trail that went out seconds after their Security Unit were deployed to our location.”

“Shit,” Jett said, leading them up the stairs and down the hall toward the hatch. “How many more?”

“They have a truck, two actually, but they’re going to the other location. So hopefully by then, you’ll be on your way out of there.” Travis chuckled. “I’m at the rendez-vous point.”

Evan frowned. “Is Brian still sleeping?”

“Yeah. You want me to wake him up?”

“Get him to start the vehicle. I want to get to the other side of the city. I need time to look over what we took from FreeState.”

“If we even stole anything,” SMii7y said, “all I got were documents, but who knows what could be inside of them. It could be their tentacle porn.”

Once Evan hauled the equipment on to the dark street covered in thick fog, streams of vehicles passed them without a care. He followed SMii7y and Jett through an alley they knew would be close by so they could have a chance to run. But while the FreeState’s Security Unit were hounding their decoy, they simply walked, not slow, but quickly through the alley. 

He looked at the back of their heads and thought of a possible betrayal. He could destroy the link, take what he could and run into the night. He could make it out somehow and find a way into The Labyrinth, but not everyone could scale the walls, and not everyone made it out alive. 

So why should he?

They made it back to the van where Travis, a blond sat with the door slid open, a phone in his hand, and a helmet covering the side of his head, while the other was ripped open besides the wires sticking from a port under his ear. He waved at them with a smile on his lips.

“Took you long enough,” he said.

“Shut up,” Jett replied.

SMii7y ignored them and got into the back of the van.

Evan glanced at the driver's seat to see Brian yawning with his hands on the steering wheel. He got into the passenger seat and closed the door. He cut the link from the rest of them and set the equipment down between his legs on the floor.

“They found the decoy,” he told Brian.

He nodded. “My bad. Late night re—”

“We could’ve died.”

Brian scoffed. “No, you wouldn’t have. You dealt with these assholes for a long time—”

“And I’m still working with amateurs.”

“Hey,” SMii7y called from the back. He crawled toward them, grabbed the back of the seat and pulled himself up between them. “Just because I’m not used to killing and being cornered, does not mean I’m an amateur.”

Evan shook his head. “Whatever. We were compromised. If we didn’t assure our exits and that FreeState are using fucking bots, then we wouldn’t have made it out alive.”

“I did help with scrambling their systems,” Brian said, a bit more prouder than Evan wanted him to be.

Jett closed the door. “Alright, boys, enough complaining, we’re still alive. Can we please go?”

Brian nodded. “Yeah. Where too, boss?”

“North end lake. I need to check the system and see if I managed to grab what I needed. I can’t do it this close to FreeState.”

Brian took backroads, but there weren’t much until they got onto the heavy street filled with bright colors streaming past them, and the tall buildings and facilities that surrounded them, including the pedestrians and civilians that covered the sidewalks. All in bright colors that revealed skin and their implants either sticking from their bodies, or easily distinguished by Evan’s implant picking apart what was ripped into them. While some wore more monochromatic colors that shielded them from the scanners that stuck to the light posts and streetlights. 

He hated this city. Elysia. Wires stuck into her skin, protruded metal and ghosts that lived in her pores. The rest were disease that functioned more like the cyborgs the corps made. Some moved around, looked like humans, a reflection tainted human kinds purpose, while others were more dangerous and didn’t resemble human, but nightmares. 

There was not a city out there that could elicit a more comfortable feel than nature being choked and suffocated. Even the air itself was dying out before them. 

Maybe that’s why the implants saved most of their lives. They lived through the metal that began to corrode their veins and bones. A sickness beneath rotting skin and fingernails.

It’s not something he could stop, nor something he could do to save it. Everyone fell into a blissful dream a long time ago. He was no exception.

Brian slowed the car by a promenade and they all got out. Evan opened his laptop, he searched for the message he saw, but there was nothing there. He was a little apprehensive about it. The names were familiar, and he didn't want their eyes on him. He checked for the information he gathered, and to the oblivious nature of his cohorts, he sent it to a second party and hoped they could do something with it. 

And then he destroyed his laptop and all of his equipment by throwing it into the water. 

SMii7y, Brian, and Scotty stood near by.

“Is this...goodbye?” SMii7y asked once Evan climbed the slope. 

Rain hit the top of their heads until their hair were soaked with water. The words frozen inside his head, but he knew he was doing this for them.

“Red knows.”

Scotty stepped back. “What? When? How do you know?” He glanced around them as if someone were watching them, but it was only them on the promenade.

“I got a message,” Evan told them, “Ragdoll knows too.”

“Well fuck,” Brian said, shaking his head. “How long?”

Evan shrugged. “Maybe two hours. Traffic took forever.”

Scotty was already making his way back to the van, Brian followed after him while SMii7y stared at Evan.

“You didn’t tell us?”

“We were busy, and I wanted to get rid of my shit.”

SMii7y nodded. “Now what do we do?”

Exactly. What else could they do?

Evan gave him a smile. “Go back to Kryoz in the Outlands. Maybe he can protect you.”

SMii7y shook his head. “I’m not going back to the Outlands.”

“Stay. But they will find you, find all of us. I made a mistake. I thought FreeState had information, sure they’re using drugs to enhance emotions, but they’re fucking with humans. Maybe there’s no way to beat them.”

SMii7y said nothing, he turned his back on Evan and walked to the van. 

Evan didn’t follow. Instead he tucked his hands into his pockets and said goodbye through the link. He managed to rip it out, and delete everything he had on them. Their little vigilante group might’ve started out with good intentions, but this world was already sick as it was. There was no cure for it, but he knew one thing only. He needed to go back to The Labyrinth. 

He just didn’t know how.


	2. WINGS - PT 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evan is trying to make ends meet, but he's soon dragged from his safety to the ruthless Queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo. This took so long to write. I had to figure a lot from this story because I haven't really outlined it yet, I only managed to get 5 chapters, and I wrote two already. :/ I'm trying to flesh out the story and the characters so I can work with them better.  
> There's different pov's, and right now I'm only sure of Evan's and SMii7y's. Maybe I'll add another, I don't know yet. 
> 
> This chapter took all day to write so I don't mess any information up, or characters. Sometimes it's hard to explain how in depth I want certain stories to be. :/
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.

One year later.

The white halls were bare besides Evan sauntering next to the wall, dragging his hand on the smooth interior. Loud alternative synthwave blocked out any silence he figured he would be hearing. The headphones were black and attached to the side port behind his ears to keep it fixed to his head while he skimmed his music list on his phone. 

He came to a stop when he felt the oddest feeling and raised his head. A man stood at the end wearing a black and white suit and black sunglasses. He didn’t know why the man was wearing sunglasses, it was eleven at night. 

The music turned off the second the man opened his mouth. 

“What are you still doing here?” the man asked in a monotonous voice. 

Evan shrugged. “I was working.”

“Employs left long ago.”

“Some don’t,” Evan said, confused.

The man closed his mouth and stared at him blankly before reciting his ID which made Evan groan. “Name: Evan Fong. Age: 26. Specified Gender: Male. Occupation: Computer programmer. Hours: 700-to-2100.”

“That’s bullshit.”

The man blinked. “It’s mandatory on your salary.”

He sighed, “I’m working overtime.” 

The man stared at him then he walked away once he calculated. Evan made sure the bluff would be in the system while he was doing his business. He stayed standing beside the wall for maybe two minutes until he was sure that the man was gone. 

Safety Observer Droids, or SO’s for short. They’re programmed to watch the employs whenever they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Including making sure no one entered the building without proper ID. They were a nuisance on Evan’s part.

Evan didn’t get a job at Javelin to get caught. He strolled down the hall and took a left into an office room. Closing the door behind him and checking the lock was secured before heading for the desk. The music continued playing, but it also had alerts sequenced into it on the outside of the headphones. It’ll let him know if someone is drawing close to the room. The frequency itself was quite sharp, but he made sure it wouldn’t ruin his eardrums if someone wandered by. 

The office was one of his higher ups that looked at pornography a bit too much on his spare time. Most of the employs knew about it because of an accidental programming error that occurred one holiday. They managed to get rid of it before any customers could see it on the main floor. He was an idiot, and a good target for this kind of thing.

He took out his phone, and placed it down on the metal desk, it was thin with drawers on the side, locks placed underneath the handles. He didn’t need to see what was inside the drawers, what he was here for was the server. It wasn’t exactly the exec’s, but it’ll have to do, they all have some kind of trail that leads to a certain point in their system. He’ll nestle the A.I there and make sure that it isn’t found by whatever schedules these people have in Javelin. 

He didn’t need to touch the monitors sitting in front of him, or even the thin keyboard on the desk. An old looking thing, but paranoia was an issue to corps and he didn’t need anyone taking his fingerprints off the keys. He forged his own documents when he decided on the job, he gave himself four weeks to learn everything, earn two weeks of work, gain some money that could last three days, and he’ll do what he has too by the third week, if he’s delayed, it’ll be four weeks. A good enough plan, and here he was, connecting illegal tech to one of the most stable security systems in Elysia. 

At least the mainframe was easily breached as the first text opened the doors

SAFETY PROTOCOL DISABLED

He waited, watching the gauge grow by the second. Hoping this wouldn’t take long, not like he had anywhere else to be. His stomach did grumble and he was thinking of hitting up one of the vendors he saw down the block. The food smelled delicious at this time of night.

ANALYZING…

A sound turned off the music on his phone, a whistle in his ears, making him wince as it slowed to a caress against his lobes. 

CONNECTION ESTABLISHED

He brought up the hologram on his phone directed towards him and placed the A.I within. Letting it settle and form with the information like a virus. It wasn’t technically a virus, but it will inhabit their mainframe until he’s finished looking for everything he needs.

He smiled at the name that appeared on the screen.

ECH0 CONNECTION APPROVED

Evan tucked his phone back into his pocket and he flinched when the music returned in his ears. He switched the sound off, and walked toward the closed door. He let his scanner go off again, trying to listen to any other noise. He hoped no one was on the other side, or this was going to get bad real quick. 

The sound came back and he gritted his teeth, muttering a curse. Of course someone was on the other side, of course his life wasn’t great. It never was, but he wished for some luck at times when he needed it most. 

It was a scuffle, something light, as if they stood on the other side, a sound of clicking and a strange whirring. He waited until he came to the conclusion that it was an M-FM Droid. He drew up his black taser gun that was tucked inside his coat and eased the door open. 

It was half his height and was cleaning the creases of the walls, a white plastic interior with a soft grey exterior. It looked up at him, blinking with blue bulbs. A spray came out at the edge of the door while a brush wiped it away. 

What did startle Evan was the presence of the SO Droid. It stood several feet away behind the M-FM Droid, and stared at him. 

“You are not authorized to be in that room.” It stepped closer. “What are you doing in there?” it asked in that same monotonous tone.

“Nothing,” Evan said, panicking as he shot the SO Droid with the taser, his heart racing as it stuttered and fell to its knees before falling on its side. The Droid jerked like a fish as Evan jumped over it and bolted down the hallway. 

Nothing was ever clean, not the walls, not the floors, not the job he picked, and certainly not the droid who wandered the halls like a ghost. 

Another appeared, a woman with black hair. It wore the same black and white suit, and recognized Evan as he was running by. It reached its hands out, but he shot it in the neck with the taser. Clenching his teeth at the sound of its body jerking on the floor. 

“Synch,” he panted, skidding down the left hallway toward the staircase that would lead him to the bottom floor and out the back door of the building. 

“Synchronizing confirmed,” ECH0 spoke, her voice sweet with a hint of indifference. 

Images appeared in one of his eyes and he muttered out labels until he got all the files. He was close, reaching out as he jumped from the third stair to the grey cement. “Delete.” And he was out, his heart racing as all information inside Javelin went out like a light, and rain seeped into his hair.

“Progress report,” he slowed his pace down the alley, “ECH0.”

“Javelin is the name of the Cybernetics Department. A subsidiary of Heaven’s Corporat—”

“Synchronize to the mainframe and keep me up to date on the protocols. Anything changes, tell me,” he said, pulling his grey hood over his head. 

“Orders approved, sleep sequence enabled.” 

He felt it humm than fade away. He turned off most of the connections to Javelin besides ECH0. He needed her connection firmly in place, and he wanted to analyze the information he managed to grab before leaving Javelin. 

He got far away that he was confident none of the SO Droids would follow, although they’d be breaking protocol which was unheard of, and he was expecting a Security Unit. None of them followed him down the soaked pavement while cars drove by in a series of colors and washed out reflections from the buildings that were still lit. Saturated neon was so bright that it burned his eyes, and his jacket didn’t protect him that much from the cold.

He found a phone booth near a burned out street light, an archaic looking thing, blue on all sides with black graffiti and metallic buttons. He phoned The King of Hearts, huddling in the booth as he listened to the ringing until it was gone.

“Did you get it?”

“Why do you think I’m calling?” Evan said. “Easy.”

“You could’ve done it in a week, two weeks, why three?” 

Evan snickered. “Actually I was thinking four weeks.” He cleared his throat. “Look, I’m not doing this only for you. I’m looking into some information from Javelin that—”

“You’re really determined about MainLife?” they asked, skeptical.

“I am,” Evan said, annoyed by the condescending voice.

“I’m not making fun of you. I’m only curious, but MainLife won’t give you The Labyrinth. I know this, and you know this. Quit chasing your reflection and actually look at the world.”

“This shithole!” Their laugh made him smile. “Leave me to my fantasies, I got what you wanted. I’ll send it in once I fix it up.”

“Okay. It was nice hearing from you, Evan.”

“Yeah, yeah, I love you too.” And he hung up, sighing. These three weeks were terrible, but he got what he wanted, and now he has to clean out his apartment. It’ll be a good idea to do it now than later. Before Javelin finds out, if they haven’t already. He might even burn the place once the rain stops.

He caught the bus that took him across the city to a decrepit neighborhood that he wished he didn’t live in. A lot of yelling from windows, men fighting on the street, cops are usually hanging around. Sometimes accidents, a lot of ambulance visiting the houses that have way too many parties. But he kept telling himself that worse things can happen, and he had to live with that. At least however long before he’s stabbed and mugged for his implants and other equipment.

He walked down the street to his apartment, but he stopped when he caught sight of a tall familiar man with pale skin and dark hair standing under the flickering white light above the staircase. He was dressed entirely in black: a blazer, V-neck shirt, dress pants that he probably scowled at, and shiny shoes that Evan figured costed a lot for him to consider wearing. He turned, looking toward the driver who was standing by the black limousine, and then he turned his attention to Evan. And their eyes met with recognition as his lips pulled into a deadly smirk. 

Jack. 

_ Shit. Fuck. Fuck. No. Not here, not now. _

Before he could run, the driver drew close, and Evan panicked, taking out the taser gun and shooting the driver. His body landed on the sidewalk with a loud thump, shuddering as a groan left his lips from the intensity. 

Unfortunately, Evan got a taste of that when Jack pulled out his own and shot him. He fell forward, hitting the hard ground was not as painful as the electricity coursing through him. He could barely think straight once it was done, his entire body twitching, as he stared up at the dark sky with filtering clouds hovering over. The rain had stopped moments before, and all he heard was Jack tsking as the driver rose to his feet.

He knelt down, tilting his head and grinning. “Now, now, Evan, are you really going to attack us like that? You know exactly what happens to people who assault us.” He flicked a dark bang from Evan’s wet face. “But I’m not visiting to cut off a finger,  _ she _ wants to see you.”

Evan clenched his teeth, shuddering.

Jack chuckled. “I can see the enthusiasm.” He looked up at the driver. “Pick him up, Roth. Put him in the back seat. He should be fine by the time we get there, but if he tries to leave,” he waved the taser at Evan, “I’ll be the one having fun, and you know how much I enjoy my definition of  _ fun _ .” 

Roth picked Evan up and carried him to the car, shoving him inside where he almost fell onto the floor. The limousine only had four seats facing each other, including the driver’s seat and the passenger. There was a window to shut out the driver if they so choose.  

Jack got in as well, sitting across from him and placing an arm on top of the seat. Unlike most people, he didn’t have many implants, and if he had more around his body, Evan wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t scan Jack even if he wanted too, it was the fear that kept him at bay if he did.

Evan righted himself on the seat. “What does  _ she _ want?”

Jack shrugged. “How should I know?”

“You’re her lapdog, you should know.”

His brows pinched, and he raised the taser and shot Evan. He gasped, shaking on the seat as the car began to move. 

“Mind your tongue, Evan, you might not have one for long.”

Once the pain faded, he blinked several times as he pushed himself up and leaned against the seat. He didn’t bother talking to him, it wouldn’t matter. He would find his thrill in shooting—

Another shot, and Evan tensed against the seat. 

Jack held the taser loosely in his hand. “Just because I’m not cutting your tongue out, doesn’t mean you don’t have to talk. I haven’t seen you in some time, how have you been?”

“Better,” Evan gasped, “then usual.”

“That’s good,” he smiled, “I was thinking you might’ve died. It would be a pity, I’d like to see your carcass before its set on fire.”

“Fire?” Evan asked, frowning. “Why would my body be set on—” Again, his body seized, and his spine felt like it was going to snap.

“Don’t ask stupid questions, Evan, you’re smarter than that.”

“S-Stop.”

“I’m only getting you back for shooting Roth, he didn’t need that tonight, did you know his daughter’s play ended an hour before we picked you up. Beautiful.” Jack chuckled. “Haven’t seen a decent play in some time.” And he shot Evan again with whatever sick amusement he got from it.

By the time they reached the Gentlemen’s Club, The Cat’s Eye, Roth had to carry Evan out of the car and dragged him toward the back door. They walked through the dim lit halls passing workers who wandered by, a few stared at Evan but they promptly ignored him. Next was the kitchen and he was reminded that he was hungry, and lastly the private rooms filled with white light and bright clothes hanging off clothing racks. The office door was closed, it was a simple grey door with a brass doorknob. Nothing special, at least that’s how it’s supposed to look to throw others off. 

Jack rapped his knuckles against the door and a thin black haired girl opened it. She wore an indifferent expression upon her pale face, and stepped aside when she flicked her eyes at Evan.

Aylo. Third-in-command, and ruthless as Jack.

Roth dragged Evan toward a gold and red chair and slumped him down without any care. Evan gripped the arm wrists to keep himself up while Jack closed the door once Roth walked out, and they stared at one another until the woman at her desk decided to rise from her seat. She was young, in her early thirties. She had smooth pale skin that her black short hair complimented, while her lips were prominent with red lipstick that she always wore.

Her gaze fell on Evan as she rounded the desk. A black blazer hugged her form while her white shirt peeked from the collar, and her dress pants were similar to Jack’s. 

Her entire presence is unnerving, her silence, her attention, her calculating eyes.

Red. That was her name, not her real one, but all the same. He heard rumors that she got the nickname from bloodbaths that she committed. She had a desire for blood and didn’t care how she got it. She would slit throats, and blow people’s brains out with a gun. She would rip them apart and watch the stark color spill into a puddle on the floor. 

She wasn’t an android of any kind, but she did have cybernetics. He can see the outlines of it on her face and the way she moved her right arm. It’s graceful, but at times stiff. 

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” Red said, standing straight, and smiling. 

“Not long enough,” Evan replied, and twitched when Jack stepped closer, the taser was still in his hand. 

“Don’t worry about Jack,” Red said, her voice even, and Evan noted Jack moving back and placing the taser on the bookshelf to his right. “I’m sure he didn’t hurt you that much, at least not too much to the point you didn’t deserve it.”

Evan sat up straight, nodding. “Oh. No. I deserved it.” He caught Jack’s smirk and ignored it.

Red didn’t lose her smile when she said, “We have an acquaintance, the both of us.” 

So she was getting down to business, might as well. Her notorious impatience wears thin when the topic is never brought up quickly. He had seen it, her rage, the iciness in her eyes and the orders she damned anyone who would cross her and waste her time. 

He shrugged, “I don’t know anybody nowadays.”

“I know, Evan.”

“Then what do you want from me?” 

“I want,” she tilted her head, almost mechanical, “Ragdoll.”


	3. Consequence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evan is blackmailed by Red, and is in denial of a captured friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey. Gosh. This story is a bit intricate, and I haven't exactly outlined it completely. I'm still learning about the world itself, and yeah, I already figured out the major plot points. So hopefully, I can write up an outline soon and reveal how many chapters are in this story. :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated.

Evan gritted his teeth. Of course, he should’ve known she was going to ask about Ragdoll. It was bound to happen, and maybe he hoped she would have forgotten what happened a year ago, or even let it go altogether. 

“Tough luck,” he said to her, “I don’t know where Ragdoll is.”

“You were communicating with Ragdoll.”

“Yeah, a year ago, but I never seen them face-to-face.” Evan hoped he could hold onto his integrity, but he wasn’t sure if he could once she loses her patience. 

Red stared at him, analyzing him before she stepped back, jutting her chin at Aylo who stood silently to the right of Jack. She stepped forward while Red moved back toward her desk. 

Evan sucked in a breath, “No. Okay, I told you everything—”

“You told me nothing,” Red said, pulling up a hologram that showed what was on her screen, the picture was of Evan’s apartment, including himself going in and out of it in the last few days. They were watching him quite extensively. 

Aylo stepped closer, her expression was flat as she reached for his wrist that he tried pulling away from her, but her grip was tight when she caught hold. His weakly attempt to fight back once circuits of electricity flowed from her hand and into his wrist. The pain grew, burning his skin as he let out a scream. 

“You really can’t hold back, can you?” Jack asked, walking over to them and he grasped Evan’s free hand that was trying to fight Aylo off, and held him down. “You know what happens, Evan, to people who don’t obey.”

He knew what happened, and the pain was excruciating as he thrashed in the chair, trying to kick Aylo off of him. She slowed down for only a second while his nerves made his hand go numb as another set of electricity spewed out. His entire body tensed that he was afraid his own teeth would break at how much he was clenching them. 

Aylo stepped back, letting Evan gulp in heavy breaths while Jack stepped into his view and hit him in the face a few times. The onslaught left him dizzy while blood dribbled from his nose that he was sure was broken. Jack stepped back, grinning while Red came before him, her expression was blank as she pulled the hologram with her and showed him a video surveillance footage of him not even a few hours before at the phone booth. 

“Your line was secure,” Red said, pulling the video closer and he can hear a slight muffle in his voice but nothing more. His own face was also blurred out, but the clothes revealed it was him. “Who were you talking to, Evan?”

His face stung, and he can feel the slide of warm blood past his lips and along his chin. “King...of Hearts,” he said, and he couldn’t help the smirk as Red stared at him, but he knew what she was feeling. A sense of turmoil going on in her head as she straightened and hit him on the face hard enough that his head turned to the right and he gasped at the brunt of it stabbing into his nose, the feel of the bone sliding. 

“The King of Hearts,” Red said, her voice empty as it usually was, “he must’ve wanted something from you. Your connection to him is undeniable,” she turned to Aylo and shooed Jack to the side, “scan his implants, I want to know what he has on him.”

_ Ech0 _

“No, I don’t have anything!” He was about to rise from the chair, knowing he wasn’t about to leave this room with all of his implants intact, but the shooting pain from his wrist kept him down while Aylo gripped his shoulder, the same circuits of electricity spasmed throughout his body, leaving him limp in the chair as she opened a port behind his ear, there was a slight whirring noise on the inside of his head. The plate on the side was pulled apart while Aylo took his phone that was inside his pocket and looked through it, she tucked a cable into the side of his head, and he was locked in as he stared at Red’s hologram and every memory he had in the past few hours were transported to the screen. 

Red looked them over while Aylo tugged the cable out. Her iris turned red as she looked him over, scanning him for anymore implants. Except he didn’t have anymore, they should know this. 

“Unregistered,” Aylo said, the first thing she did say since Evan arrived. She rarely spoke, and mostly addressed Red than anyone else. 

Red slowly nodded, looking over the memories that Evan held, and stopped at one. She pulled it up and showed him the screen of what he was doing within Javelin. 

“Always the activist, aren’t you?” Red said.

“Have to be,” Evan weakly said, barely feeling his tongue move. 

“Scan Complete,” Aylo said, wrenching something out of the port, and for a second he couldn’t remember how to breathe before he gasped while Aylo passed Red the phone and a small device that had been inside the port. 

_ Neural Memory and Modified Identification Unit Disabled  _ flashed before his eyes as he realized what Aylo had done.

“He has a memory chip and ID module implant, and there’s a link to an A.I known as Ech0. There’s no other external implant that he possesses.”

Red took the phone and the small device whilst watching the memory playing over and over again. His words were muffled to Evan’s ears, but he recalled what he said and what he had done to get into Javelin. All that time and now it was handed over to Red. This was a bad month. 

“Cybernetics is a part of our life,” Red said, switching to another memory, the one with the King of Hearts. She listened in on the call and her facial expression twitched with a hint of rage at the sound of his voice. “MainLife? You’re still trying to get into The Labyrinth.” She didn’t seem surprised by this, not like many were, he had told a lot of people back when he was desperate. 

Red closed off the hologram and gave the phone and his small device to Jack. “Keep it safe,” she told him, staring down at Evan and his pathetic state, “you’ll have what you seek once I have what I want, and that is Ragdoll.”

He didn’t understand why she wanted him to find Ragdoll. Of all the people, why them? “Why?” he asked

Red leaned forward, looking him in the eyes. “They destroyed something of mine within The Labyrinth and I want retribution.” 

“So what, you’re going to kill them?” 

“Death is finality, life is the true torture of our existence,” Red straightened once more, but her eyes were piercing and her threats silent. He shuddered in her presence at what she would do if he failed, “Retrieve Ragdoll, bring them to me, and I’ll return your A.I.”

Evan didn’t want to know what would happen to Ech0 if he didn’t bring her Ragdoll. He had an active imagination and winced at the thought. This was his chance, but there was also something else that bothered him about this deal. 

Ragdoll destroyed something in The Labyrinth?

“I’ll do it,” Evan murmured, gasping as he pulled himself up, the pain pinpricks of pain all over his body, mostly in his wrist and shoulder. “Can I have my implant back.”

“No,” Red said, holding the piece that once was tucked behind his ear. “I’m sure an Unregistered can find a ripper doc somewhere, but for now, you can leave empty handed.” 

Evan nodded, figuring that was okay, he can find someone on his way back to his apartment. Jack grabbed his arm and yanked him up onto his feet, he almost collapsed at the harsh movement, and Jack laughed in his face at whatever expression he made. 

“You’ll be followed,” Red said, leaning against her desk, “and guarded from the E.P.U.” Evan had a hard time swallowing the lump in his throat as Jack dragged him toward the door. 

The thoughts flitted in and out of his mind at the loss of his implant, and Ech0, his chance to find The Labyrinth was now in the hands of the leader to The Creed. 

Jack chuckled in his ear, his hot breath against the shell. “Since you like to piss everyone off, how about you dance a bit with the lot of them.” Evan was confused but felt the pinprick of a gun against the back of his neck and the world fell under his feet as Jack shoved him forward out the open door. He tried to stand, but he couldn’t, wobbling and staggering down the hallway before he came upon a room lit with bright lights of neon and scattering stars and the jostle of sweat and blood pouring around him. He was shoved to the side, back and forth, wobbling as pain flared from his nose, but all he could taste was honeysuckle on his tongue. 

The world is breathing, pulsing with energy that it sucks the absolute life out of him. He can’t think without the flickering lights in his eyes, and the missing plate that hid his empty port He can’t breath as the world continues to drop under his feet and he’s falling, falling, falling. 

What a sweet decay, absolute in blood and metal, a taste of brutality upon mottled skin. A kiss etched against his face that feels more like a bruise, a hand print, fingers digging into his flesh, scraping the metal beneath. All of it, hardened by lies he spewed like rainbow oil under a cascade of pouring rain, droplets of false ideals of utter contempt. 

He tasted hours on his tongue until his mouth and throat gone dry, and the pain was no longer a thought on his mind. Nor the hyper aware feeling of something against his ear, a whistling noise before a burn presses where his wrist feels dislocated from his body. If only he could find someone to repair that, whatever it is, his hand, lost in the flurry of hot pink fog, a clap of thunder and his eyes open, blurry and strained and he feels the slap against his face, the crooked bone shifting. 

“Ow,” he groaned. 

“Finally,” a familiar voice spoke, a hint of disappointment in her annoyance. “I thought you were going to fucking drool all over yourself for the rest of the day.”

He blinked several times, trying to get his vision back before he looked at two of his former friends, the last time he saw them was a year ago, and now they were staring at him as if he died and was resurrected. If only he believed in higher power, maybe he would’ve considered the thought if it wasn’t for the massive headache pounding on both sides of his head. 

“What the fuck?” he groaned, throat burning and his arms were numb, lifeless, and he leaned his head back against the chair, closing his eyes at the bright light above him. 

Jett prodded his arm with her finger, “Do you know where we found you? Do you?” she asked, voice rising as she glared heavily at him. 

“In a hole?” Evan wondered. It felt like that’s where he ended up, falling and falling, it made him want to throw up, and Travis, who was standing across from him grabbed a bucket. He passed it to Evan who gripped the sides and threw up into it, tasting the stomach acid and something more he can’t recall. Either way, it was disgusting. 

“In a fucking hole,” Jett said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you. A year, Evan, and this is how we find you? Drugged out on V?” 

Evan lifted his head, his brows pinched together. “I was on V?” 

Travis nodded, looking disgusted at him. “Yeah. I...uh...checked your blood and saliva to see what the fuck you’re into and it was a large dose of V. I think there was alcohol too.” 

“I didn’t drink any alcohol,” he murmured, slowly setting the bucket down on the floor, and trying to process the pain going on throughout his body.

“Your samples came back and it said you had alcohol in your system,” Travis said, pulling up a hologram and showing him his vitals. 

Evan scowled as Travis pulled it away and his fingers found the empty port with the implant missing. He touched the inside and shuddered at the feeling. It was gone, it wasn’t a dream, Red truly took his A.I and threatened him if he didn’t find Ragdoll. 

“Yeah, I was going to ask about that,” Jett said, wearing an unimpressed expression, “why is it like that? Did you sell it?”

“No,” Evan said, dropping his hand. “I need something to get rid of this fucking headache.” 

Jett stood up and walked out of the room, down the hall, and disappeared to the right and into the kitchen. He remembered the layout of Travis’s apartment. It was on the north end of Elysia, standing near the more stable residences, but even the graffiti and police visits are catching up. 

Evan groaned, covering his face with his shaky hands, and winced at the sharp pain. “Fuck…”

“Yeah,” Travis said, cringing, “we had to bandage it up and put ice on it.”

Evan examined his bandaged forearm and hand. It felt rigid and too hot. And it helped to piece the events that happened the other night when Jack injected him with V. 

“I fucked up,” Evan said, ignoring his whimper. 

“Besides doing V and partying all night, what other bad thing could you have done?” Travis asked, frowning at him. 

Jett returned with a white pill and a cup of warm water. “This will help, for now anyway.” 

Evan picked the pill up from her offered hand. “I made a deal with Red.” 

“What?” Jett exclaimed, almost dropping the cup that Travis grabbed before handing it to Evan. “What the fuck do you mean you made a deal with Red? Is that who you were with last night? Did she fuck you up?”

Evan tensed at her loud voice before taking the pill and downed some of the water. “Yeah, can you quit fucking yelling.”

“What does she want?” Jett asked, sitting back down and glaring. 

“Ragdoll,” Evan said, passing the cup to Travis. 

“How are you going to find Ragdoll?” Travis asked, setting the cup on the floor. “They’re an anarchist that doesn’t allow a lot of people to know who they fucking are.”

“I corresponded with them a year ago,” Evan confessed, wincing at Jett’s opened mouth, but Travis put his hand up to silence her before she could start yelling.

“What do you mean?”

“They interfered with the FreeState job last year, I was warned about their involvement, and spoke with them later on that week. They apologized but were sketchy about what I was doing. I told them the truth, and—”

“And that’s the reason you left Elysia?” Jett asked, a lot more calmer. 

“Yeah, I was doing another job in a different city for them, and I last spoke with Ragdoll at the end of the month,” Evan said. He didn’t like the weight that was placed on his shoulders, but he could never get rid of it. 

“Red thinks you know them personally,” Jett said, glaring at the floor. 

Evan nodded, resting his uninjured hand over the bandaged one.

Travis sighed, frowning, but something seemed to have dawned on him, something that made him nervous as he looked away. “Since you returned three weeks ago—”

“How did you—”

“Something bad happened, we weren’t sure what was going on at first, but—”

“SMii7y was taken to the CLC,” Jett interrupted, bringing more weight upon them as Evan gaped at both of them, shaking his head in denial. 

“No, they didn’t take him,” Evan rose, staggering toward Travis who also stood from his chair, “tell me he wasn’t taken by them.” He grabbed the front of Travis’s black jacket, and curled his fingers, staring hard into his eyes, hoping this wasn’t true.

“He was,” Travis said, breathing heavy and gripping Evan’s shoulders, “about a week ago, from the looks of it, he wasn’t processed yet, he’s still in containment.”

“They haven’t done anything to him,” Jett said, placing a consoling hand on Evan’s arm. 

“We have to go after him,” Evan said under his breath. He let go of Travis and sat down in his chair, leaning back in it as he covered his face. “We have to save him.”

“We will,” Travis said. “It might just be the three of us on this mission, Scotty returned to Basically about two weeks ago.”

Evan dropped his hands, and nodded. “We should speak to Kira, she might give us an opening to find and save SMii7y.”

Travis brought up the hologram, pushing Evan’s vital’s away from him, and bringing up a screen that was currently black. He pressed the side panel and touched Kira’s name. 

“What about your tail?” Jett asked, looking to Evan, “Red wouldn’t have let you go without one.”

Evan nodded, not exactly fixed on that, his mind was racing on what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. He could care less about what Red wanted at the moment. “I don’t care. We have to get SMii7y out of CLC before they do something to him.”

The screen lit up and a girl appeared with long brown to grey hair framing her face that trailed off the screen, her eyes were a mechanical white, while her skin was a light brown shade. She glanced between the three of them, clicking something on her keyboard.

“Is there something I can do for you?” she asked, giving them a smile.

“Yeah,” Evan said, meeting her eyes, “we need you to find SMii7y.”


	4. STASIS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SMii7y wakes up in an unfamiliar places, and he doesn't want to be there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a clear idea of what I want to do with this story, I just...need to outline the chapters and I haven't done that. LMFAO. Also, I kind of fell out of interest with cyberpunk. So I might have to get back into that. Haha!
> 
> SMii7Y's chapter will be shorter than Evan's. Depends tbh. :D
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.

Lemon. The smell eased into his head as he let out a low groan. It was like he was hit on the back of his head and forced to drink a large amount of alcohol. A headache pounded on the sides of his head as he moved his arm. It was numb from lying on it, and instead of feeling his rug, it was cold and smooth.

He opened his eyes, wondering if he woke up in the bathroom, maybe that’s why it smelled like lemon. The room didn’t flicker with a faint green shade from the light above the sink. It was dim besides what was coming from the door. He moved his arm, placing his hand flat on the ground before moving his other arm as he pushed himself up.

It soon hit him that he wasn’t in his bathroom. He wasn’t even at home. It looked more like a square white wall with white floors, all squeaky clean and unfamiliar.

“What?” SMii7y murmured, looking to the door, but it wasn’t exactly a door. There was no door actually. It was a wide entrance with sizzling blue lines going from the ceiling to the floor. Without even bothering to touch it, he knew it would burn his skin, it wasn’t meant for him to leave the room he was lying in.

There was no sense of safety in the room. Not when he was jolted from a loud scream coming from down the hall. There was even someone across from him in the same room. They were dressed in all white, curled against the wall.

He looked down at his own clothes and found himself wearing the same outfit. “What the fuck is going on?” he wondered. The last thing he remembered was that he was waiting for Kryoz to get into Elysia, and he was walking down Rosewood St before everything had gone wrong. A blank slate. He had no idea how long it’s been.

SMii7y pressed the side of his temple for his implant. It was still attached to him, and he blinked a few times to operate it. The room itself was a container of some sort, and it wasn’t only used to hold him, but it had the electrical current going throughout the whole thing.

SMii7y stayed away from the walls, knowing it wasn’t going to do anything to help him if it was used against him. He figured maybe it was used for aggressive prisoners.

He looked across from him, more of the electrical currents flowed through the room, around it and inside. Mostly focusing on the implants inside the person across from him. There was no way for him to deactivate it, at least not like this, he’d have to do it manually. Not like he knew where he was, but there was something at the back of his head he didn’t want to confront, and it was mostly fear that kept him away from it.

SMii7y wrapped his arms around his knees, gritting his teeth. “Shit.” Kryoz isn’t going to find him if he comes into Elysia, and he wasn’t sure what happened to Evan. He didn’t stay in contact with anyone, and maybe that was his own fault when trust was hard to find nowadays.

Was he that much of an easy mark?

All he wanted was to see Kryoz again and now he was stuck in some milk white container. How long had he been sleeping for? They changed him. Took what he had on him, besides his implants. SMii7y shuddered, he didn’t like the break of privacy. He was always self-conscious of his weight and now these people had to make it worse.

He focused on breathing, staying calm so he could think clearly when they eventually come for him. All he wanted was to tuck his fear away inside of him, between his rib bones and the pocket of his soul. Exhale. Inhale. Everything is okay, he hopes.

He bit his lower lip, staring at the curled person across from him, they weren’t moving and seemed comfortable against the wall, even how uncomfortable it looked. He didn’t imagine that he’d end up like this. He tasted regret as much as the lemon eased into his senses.

A nice clean taste, he knew it was a delusion of some kind, a lie to hide the dirt underneath. They might as well be glass jars. All muffled and faded out, nothing inside but an echo.

He focused on his breathing, on the stretched time as he rocked back and forth, counting until there was a sound. Small and scuffled until it began to grow and he relaxed his shoulders. He looked up at this person with steel white skin and thick brown hair, empty brown eyes that examined him. It wasn’t exactly a person, SMii7y can see with his implant that it wasn’t a person.

An android.

It pressed something on the side of the entrance and the blue electricity went out, the sound going stiff. SMii7y glanced toward the person across from him. They uncurled and was staring at him, a girl with wide brown eyes, her dark hair trailed along her shoulders. She was shaking her head, mouthing something, but the android reached down and grabbed his arm. It yanked him up onto his feet and he winced from its hard edged hold as it began to drag him away.

The person across from him began to scream and she had touched the electricity, falling backwards, going completely still as SMii7y caught the sight of blood on her hand. He turned back to the android who didn’t stop pulling on him, and he did try at least fighting it off, knowing if he could run, maybe he can find help.

“Let me go, you fucking android!” SMii7y let out an annoyed sound, and its hold tightened, making him wince.

He’s pulled into another white room with two other androids. There’s a camera in the corner, staring at them as he is dragged into the center. The door behind them seals shut.

The female android with black cropped hair stood in front of him, her blue eyes dilated as she stared at him. And then she spoke in a mechanical voice, unlike humans smooth flow of speech.

“Unregistered: 000234 of the Outlands.”

SMii7y blinked, shaking his head as the thought he had earlier began to rise, his heart racing as any other sense of control began to slip from his hold.

“Birth name: Jaren Smith.”

“Let me go!” his scream echoed throughout the room as the second android came to his right side and grasped his arm, metal fingers digging into his arms. They completely restrained him as the female android continued her identification of him.

“Code Name: SMii7y.”

He didn’t expect himself to start crying, but the tears were there, one sliding down his face as the truth slowly came to him.

“Age: Twenty-one.”

He fucked up. He fucked up. He fucked up!

“Specified Gender: Male.

The android on his left grasped his wrist and turned it, he jerked forward, gasping as the female android set a stamp down, and it burned into his skin. He thrashed, screaming from the stinging pain.

“No, please, please, I can’t be in CLC, please let me out! I didn’t do anything wrong!” He screamed, gasping for air, murmuring Kryoz’s name as they dragged him from the room. He tried to fight it off, but his energy was slowly leaving him. The mark was red around black text, telling him who he now belonged to.

He was no longer an Unregistered.

They brought him into a room and there were humans inside, and a metal table in the middle of the room beside others like him who were all still as dead bodies.

“No! Let me go, okay! I-I didn’t do anything!”

The human woman smiled at him, “You’re not registered, Jaren, and now you can be.”

A male nurse indicated the androids to place SMii7y onto the metal table. He thrashed, but they dragged him on top and the second he was lying down, an electrical current spasmed throughout his body, and he went completely still. His teeth clenched, and his eyes widened. It was difficult for him to breathe once the electricity stopped and his body was pliant, unable to move or scream. His lip trembled as another tear trailed down his face.

“Remove them,” the female doctor said, and two male nurses were on either side of him.

He can feel them prodding along the sides of his face, taking out his implants. They were scanning him for anymore, and removing those as well.

The female doctor whom he learned was Dr. Mitchell smiled down at him, sickly sweet and disturbing as she attached something into the side of his head.

“I’m sure you know what STASIS is.”

SMii7y tightly closed his eyes, knowing he couldn’t do anything about it even if he wanted too. He didn’t want to go to STASIS. He didn’t want to wake up. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to go home, he wanted Kryoz.

He didn’t know if he would remember him after this. Death would be better.


	5. Rabbit Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evan is trying to get the report from his AI, while waiting on intel of SMii7y's fate. He drinks to pass the time, and to stop his shaking, but bad news mixes with the good, finally lands him on his feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this took so long for me to write. I wasn't sure what I wanted to write, but I'd like to figure it out since I know the themes of the story, and the ending! :D 
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.

Evan covered his head with his hood as he stood out in the alley later on that day. The sky was grey, covered in the thick clouds while rain slicked the streets. He fumbled with his phone. He’d have to get another one in the next hour. Right now, he needed to check on Ech0’s progress in Javelin. 

He was impatient the first hour when Kira got to work, and he was ushered out of the room by Jett who sent death glares at him, and when that didn’t work. She threatened to hit him with her bat she had stored in the kitchen. 

He let them work, a tight knot stayed in the center of his chest, squeezing with each breath he took. He hated thinking that SMii7y has been missing this entire time since he was busy dealing with Red. 

The Central Life Console. The CLC. The place that an Unregistered shouldn’t be going too, even if they’re forced too. It should always be a fight. Being inside Elysia, living in the confines of this dark and dreary city with its bright colors in the darkness once the sun sets, is bad enough for Unregisters.

Scotty had the good enough conscious to head back to the Outlands. It wasn’t safe in this place for their kind.

The CLC was an indoctrination center. The worst place for an Unregistered. Apparently there was a rumor that it was also the entrance to The Labyrinth, but he didn’t want to believe that, and was happily ignoring that intel. 

Evan leaned against the wall and fumbled with his phone. He sent a signal out to Ech0, hoping it can give her a progress report in the next hour. He wanted to make sure Red doesn’t end up knowing anything about his business unless he wanted her to know. 

He let out a sigh and closed his eyes. He couldn’t believe it. After everything he went through, there was a problem after problem rising around him. And he’d have to figure out how to deal with it. He had time to think about it, time to consider his next motives. One of them is to locate SMii7y, but how were they going to get him out of CLC? He needed someone else to help them with this issue.

He was almost tempted to call the _King of Hearts_ back and ask for his help. Except, he wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do now that he was staying with Jett and Travis. He didn’t want them to know anything, but if he can keep them from knowing any more of his plans, and possibly figuring it out, maybe he can get somewhere with it. 

Evan pushed himself away from the wall and headed back upstairs. His hands were still shaky, but he managed to dial a number and placed it against his ear. The apartment was three flights up and he’d rather not use the elevator. 

_This number is unavailable at this ti—_

“For fuck sakes,” Evan shoved his phone into his pocket, “where are you, Brian?” Every time he needs something, he’s always missing. 

And that’s what bothers him as he stands in the middle of the staircase, gripping the railing. It’s quiet enough that he hears his heart racing inside his chest, and the intrusive thoughts barging their way into his head. Telling him the worst things he doesn’t want to hear or even think of. The visuals don’t help in the least.

He failed SMii7y. 

He kept everyone at an arms reach, hoping no one would be harmed while he worked in Javelin, but he was messy like usual. Too focused on his own needs and interests than his own friend’s. 

He hadn’t heard from Brian for some time, and the fear of what happened to SMii7y could easily happen to Brian as well. He needs confirmation that Brian was fine, and maybe Kira can help him with that. 

Evan climbs the staircase and walks down the flickering greenish blue hallway to Travis’s wide brown-red door. He pushes the door and walks right in before locking it behind him. He was a little too paranoid to keep it unlocked, and he had the inkling that Jett and Travis weren’t as suspicious as he was. They didn’t see what he saw, and they didn’t experience what he went through.

It was bad enough that the survival instincts didn’t fade away over time. He was still struggling at dealing with his own fears and setbacks to ever make a mistake again. Except, getting caught by Red, then later blackmailed, and learning SMii7y had been missing for a week did not help his pride. 

He had to be better than that. 

“Jett,” Evan said, walking into the room and regarding her as she sat on a chair in front of a wide hologram. She was watching some old TV show that was black and white, unlike the other stations that most people in their day and age would watch, she even watched the news when it becomes relevant to her. 

_“They keep changing the news anchor,” she had said, shaking her head, and popping salted corn into her mouth._

_“Why do you care about the news anchor?” he asked, sitting beside her in her humid apartment during one summer when they were forced to become friends, or at least partners in their grander schemes that didn’t involve androids chasing them down the street, although that didn’t really change that much over time._

_She shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know...it’s just weird seeing someone new every few weeks.”_

Now, Jett was watching a black and white comedy where the acting was less interesting, but more stiff and less fluid. She was eating popcorn this time, and had her legs propped up on the chair. 

“What?” she asked, not looking at him, and seemed quite fixated on the show. 

“Have you seen Brian?” 

That seemed to gain her attention, and right away, she brought her legs off the chair with a thump, and she touched the hologram on the side of her face where it went out, plunging them into a rather dim living room where the only noise came from the bathroom. Travis’s toilet didn’t flush right, and he always told them how much he hated his apartment. 

“No,” she said, placing the popcorn bag to the side, “I haven’t seen him since that time you ditched us for Rag Doll.” 

Evan sighed, avoiding her gaze. “You’re never going to let that go,” he muttered under his breath.

“I don’t see why I should let it go,” Jett said, scowling at him, but going back to eating her popcorn. “You fucked off without even a say until it mattered only to _you_.”

“It wasn’t like we’re friends,” Evan said, meeting her gaze and watching Jett’s scowl turn into a hard glare. 

“Yeah, we’re not friends,” Jett said sarcastically, shaking her head, “if we weren’t, Evan. You’d be still lying in that fucking hole, you’d still be puking all by yourself with no fucking help from anyone. So, how about you get out of that hole you dug yourself, and actually be a little nicer.”

“Not all of us can live through Red’s treatment unscathed,” Evan remarked, glaring at the floor. He could barely stop himself from twitching from the drug Jack had shot him with. The large dose had sent him into a high for several hours, and he had no idea how Jett or Travis found him. He didn’t want to tell them, but he could still feel the effects, and it was drying out his mouth and making him exhausted. 

Jett scoffed. “You’re alive, Evan, pretend you survived death and maybe you can get that stick out of your ass.”

The door to the bathroom opened up and Travis stepped out, glaring at nothing as he closed the door and grinning at them. “I don’t think you want to go in there.”

“We weren’t going too,” Jett said, sounding more relaxed once Travis entered the room. “Evan wants to know where Brian is.”

Travis arched his brows, sitting down in the chair Jett had used for her feet. “No idea what happened to _Terroriser_. Last time I spoke to him was several weeks after you disappeared.” 

After he disappeared. At least Travis was less angry about it than Jett. Did he feel an inch of guilt for making the decision? No. Around that time, he had left Elysia to do a job for Rag Doll, at the time, he didn’t think much of it besides his own end goals. However, he never did find the entrance to The Labyrinth after that, and the _King of Hearts_ didn’t give him any options besides returning to Elysia after learning about a new AI. 

He was on the path of doing what he had too. And now there were more obstacles in front of him, more than he thought would be standing in his way. He was sitting in a crappy apartment with two people he had abandoned a year ago. They saved his life, but at what cost? 

He needs to find Rag Doll for Red, and he no longer cares what they did to The Labyrinth. All he wants is to find the entrance to it, but he also has to wait for Ech0’s diagnostics to come in, if his AI can escape Red’s notice, then they’ll be fine. 

The other thing that had come up unexpectedly was SMii7y. He had been missing for so long that Evan couldn’t help but feel that guilt well up in his chest. There was a clawing and agonizing need to find him, and drag him away from CLC before he enters STASIS. 

The last was his tail, but he didn’t want to care about that. If Red is keeping tabs on him, it’ll be fine for now. All she needs to know is that he’s getting help from other Unregisters to locate Rag Doll, and he has to make sure not to get into contact with the _King of Hearts._

His problems seemed to tangle and tangle. He didn’t know the end of one problem and the beginning of another. He didn’t even know where to properly start without pissing off the wrong people. 

“We have to find him,” Evan said. 

Travis had a hologram raised up and Evan frowned at his own vitals and status’s staring at him. He pulled it up earlier when they woke him from his stupor. Now, Travis wasn’t looking for a drug or even alcohol in his system, it seems he was more fixated on his mental capacity, and frowned at Evan through the hologram.

“You have to chill out,” Travis advised, and the hologram disappeared, placing them back into that hollow darkness again, besides his flickering kitchen light. 

“I am calm,” he said.

Jett didn’t look like she believed him. “We can’t do anything reckless like last time.”

“That wasn’t my fault,” he said, knowing exactly what they were indicating.

“Sure, and we didn’t get chased down and—”

“It’s not like we died.”

“Yet you decided to leave right after without telling us anything, and destroying what we had stolen without sharing what the fuck we were risking our necks for,” Jett said, going right back to glaring at Evan. 

Evan closed his eyes and knew he wasn’t ever going to live this down. “Can we please focus…we still have to figure out where SMii7y is before they put him into STASIS.”

Travis’s frown deepened. “If we barge right into CLC, we’ll be caught for being Unregisters. And we seen the effect of what STASIS could do to us.”

He was right. Evan didn’t want to deny what would eventually happen to them if they were taken in. He can’t even imagine it now that SMii7y had been caught in the first place. 

CLC and STASIS are one and the same. Whoever is attached to it are scanned and labeled, belonging rightfully to the system of Elysia. Anyone can be traced completely by being within the registered list. 

There was a rumor that within STASIS was also the entrance to The Labyrinth. Except, Evan didn’t believe in that, he wouldn’t dare go near something that dangerous if it meant becoming Registered. He had to find a different means to entering without getting caught and finding out himself. 

“I don’t want to wait,” Evan confesses, “but I know I have too.”

“Learning from your mistakes?” Jett asked, leaning back against the chair and giving him a smirk. 

He rolled his eyes. There was a lot he didn’t want to say in front of them, and he decided to get up, excusing himself to a bedroom where he could _sleep._ In truth, he wanted to check on Ech0 again. 

“Well,” Jett said, getting up from the chair, she stretched her arms and was still smiling at him, “if you get bored of sleeping, we’ll be taking shots until Kira’s intel comes in.” 

Evan nods, and leaves the room, walking back to Travis’s bedroom. It’s dark, but he turns on a light next to the mattress on the floor. There was even a glass ashtray beside a stack of old books without their dust jackets. A few of them had smears of grey ash stuck to the pages, some had burns on the spines. 

Evan didn’t want to know where Travis got the books, or if he was becoming a pyromaniac after leaving him alone with Jett for a year. He settled down on the bed with a group of Travis’s soft blankets that smelled of cigarette smoke, a bit of alcohol, and coffee. He tried not to linger on the smell that much as he took out his cellphone. 

Nothing.

He hoped for a report, something decent enough for him to gather and gain a bit of faith in the next few hours or days. He needed an objective to get him by without all the anxiety trembling through his body.

Evan grimaced at his hands as he placed his phone next to the ashtray. They were shaking so badly, he wasn’t even sure how he was able to hold his phone, but he was probably gripping it too tightly to notice. 

Venom. 

That’s what they called it. A strong drug that can be injected into the body by a syringe, or one can easily smoke it if they had the patience to break it down. Either way, it was still in his system, and it was drying out the moisture all over. He was dying for a shower, for water, and because of it, his lips were dry and cracked. 

It’s like it’s reminding him that he was awake, but at the same time, aware of every part of his body and thought. A subtle hint to the drug was the need for another hit. He knew it was strong, and Jack probably expected him to hunt after a fix instead of doing what Red wants him to do. Except, Evan knew his place, and he wasn’t about to make a mistake just because an asshole hated him. 

He hates the feeling of needing something he doesn’t need. His body is yelling at him, but everything that is happening is also fighting back. 

What he needs is a drink, and when he gets no report from Ech0, he heads back out into the hall and find Jett and Travis are already pouring shots.

“Knew you’d get bored right away,” Jett said, passing him a shot glass filled with Whiskey.

“I need to get the edge off,” he replied, sitting back down and taking the shot without hesitation. He sees it on their faces how much the drug is taking effect on his body, the stress creeping behind like a shadow. He extends his hand out, and Jett fills his glass again.

The heat of the apartment doesn’t help the alcohol going down his throat, but its cool enough to shatter a bit of his disappointment in the last few hours. He’s still shaking, hand sometimes going down to his pocket where he had tucked his phone inside. He needed to know, but as he took each shot, the alcohol eased in and made him swim in its ugly embrace.

He needed this. _I think…?_

“Do you think it’ll be gone from my system?” Evan asked, leaning against Travis. They had pushed their chairs in forty minutes ago when Travis had fallen off, and Evan almost toppled to the side as he laughed, while Jett kept him steady. Now, they didn’t know what they’ll do without each other’s leverage.

“The alcohol?” Travis asked, eyes closed, head leaned against Evan’s shoulder.

“V.”

“Venom…” Jett murmured, she had placed the bottle that was now almost gone onto the counter. She muttered earlier that she didn’t want to break another glass, and Travis slurred too much during his story about the time she did break a bottle, Evan had ignored them both for another shot. 

“Should be gone by tomorrow afternoon,” Jett said, lolling her head forward, her body leaning against the chair. “Should be...unless you want to get more.”

Evan grimaced, shaking his head. “No. Fuck no...I don’t want anymore.”

“Then quit bringing the stupid fucking topic up, enjoy your high!” Jett raised her hands, but then they fell beside her. 

Enjoy his high? It wasn’t exactly enjoyable when all he did was forget the rest of the night, and wonder where he was before realizing his friends had found him in a ditch on the side of the road.

“It was a hole…” Jett slurred, glaring at him with glazed eyes. 

“I’m sure it was a ditch,” Travis whispered, smirking at Jett.

Before Evan could continue the conversation about whether he was in a hole or not, the three of them heard a sound coming from Travis’s head. 

“What the fuck is that?” Evan asked, leaning back and tilting his head to the side. He reached out when Travis couldn’t, and pressed his finger to the side of Travis’s head where he activated his hologram implant. 

Travis swatted Evan’s hands away and pushed his finger against the hologram where a light was coming on one side. A wide screen appeared that wasn’t like the diagnostic’s Ech0 should be showing him soon, but of a young woman on the other side.

She glanced between them, then at Jett who was squinting her eyes at her as if it were too bright in the room. “I can’t believe you three got drunk.”

Evan sat up straight, shaking his head. “I’m not drunk, I’m on V.”

“Which somehow makes it better?” Kira says, sardonically. “Never mind about that, I got the intel you wanted about Jaren Smith, aka, SMii7y of the Outlands.” 

Evan had to clear his mind for a moment before sitting closer. “And? Did you find him?”

Kira nodded, her expression turning solemn, she cleared her throat and said the worst thing that she could have ever said to him. “SMii7y has unfortunately been registered to STASIS about several hours ago.” 

They all went silent, stricken by the news.

“Are you serious?” Jett asked, scowling, but Evan could see her facade was breaking under what Kira was telling them. “No. That can’t be right, Kira, you have to find him.”

“I _did_ find him,” Kira said, raising her voice a bit while Jett rose from the chair as if she were about to fight someone, except she stumbled back and needed to hold the counter for leverage. “The EPU picked him up two weeks ago, he was trying to get illegal documents to leave Elysia and head back to the Outlands. However, his implants were illegal themselves once they scanned him. It was a good enough reason to take him in and knock him out until they put him into STASIS, which happened a few hours ago, probably when the three of you decided to get drunk.”

“How the fuck were we supposed to know?” Evan asked, not bothering to hold back his own annoyance, “we were waiting on you!”

“Look,” Kira said, glaring at them, “I’m sorry for what happened to SMii7y, but now they can easily indoctrinate him. The next time you see him, he might not even  have all his memories intact. They can question him, they can out a lot of people, SMii7y was well informed, and well contacted.” 

Evan gritted his teeth. He couldn’t deny that. SMii7y was one of those people could easily make friends with anyone. He wasn’t a snake type of person, he cared a lot, but he can easily shut those emotions off, and do what he has to for the people that matter to him. Which are the ones who live in the Outlands. 

“Fuck,” Evan leaned back against his chair. The alcohol had soured his mood completely, and from Travis and Jett’s expressions, it had done the same to them. “Thanks, Kira, for your help.” 

She nods, “In a few hours, I’ll be changing my sources and communications. I need to make sure my protocols are safe if SMii7y does end up outing us all to the EPU.”

Evan wanted to tell her that he wouldn’t, but he wasn’t sure. Not many Unregisters ever got themselves caught, but when they did, they weren’t the same again. 

Once Travis said his goodbye’s to Kira, he closed off the hologram and covered his face with his hands. Jett had wiped a tear from her face and was pouring herself another glass.

It was as if they just learned a close friend had just died, and maybe that’s what happened. SMii7y wouldn’t be the same anymore, he was now Registered to STASIS, to the CLC. He was one of myriad Elysia’s indoctrinated connections in their system. 

Evan pours himself another glass and takes the shot. It doesn’t help, not when the pit inside of him grows, and he feels as if he’s floating down a long tunnel with no way of knowing where the ground is. 

He sets the glass down and sniffles while Jett wipes away another tear from her face. “I have to tell Kryoz what happened, it’s best he knows what happened from...me.” 

Jett and Travis nod without saying anything, and Evan awkwardly leaves the room and heads back to Travis’s bedroom. He closes the door and plops down onto the mattress.

SMii7y’s gone...and he had no idea, and it was already too late to enact a rescue mission. He was gone, and now he belongs to a part of the system itself, living in its hollow carcass with its flamboyance that kept them contained within. 

He took out his phone and was about to dial a secure number to the Outlands, but found a report from Ech0 on his screen. His heart raced with another sense of adrenaline that wasn’t sadness. He opens the files and reads the code, taking his time to understand what he’s looking at until he figures it out with a sense of relief.

“Fuck,” Evan places his hands behind his head and leans his forehead against his knees. His phone stares up at him with the code reading out exactly what he wanted to know since he learned about it from the _King of Hearts_.

Mother is being implemented within all Registers from STASIS. 

Evan’s filled with sadness, guilt, and excitement, that might be a little enhanced from V still being in his system, including the alcohol he’s been consuming for the past two hours.

“We can break him out,” Evan said, getting up from the bed, “we can break SMii7y out of CLC.” He paces the room, thinking of the plan as it comes into focus while he’s trying not to stumble. This is a delicate plan that Jett and Travis kept telling him to calmly think about instead of rushing in. 

Evan stops, nodding as the thought settles in his mind. “We’ll need Brian for this.” He heads out of the room, knowing for sure now that there was confirmation, and the plan is coming together in his rather alcohol and drug induced mind that he can now be completely assured that he’ll be able to find The Labyrinth with these pieces.

“Travis,” Evan walks back into the room with purpose, noting his friend’s tear stained faces that mix into confusion as they stare at him, “get Kira back on the line, tell her to find Brian Michael Hanby aka Terroriser of the Outlands.”

He takes out his phone while Travis quickly does what he says, and Jett is staring at him peculiarly as he dials a number. 

“Who are you phoning? And what is going on?”

Evan grins, unsure if he has ever felt this way before, completely off his mind as he finally lands on the ground instead of floating. “Well, if we’re going to rescue SMii7y from his rather concerning fate, we’ll need Kryoz, and I’m sure he’ll be able to break the indoctrination.” 

And once they have SMii7y away from the CLC, Evan will finally be close to locating The Labyrinth.


End file.
